Читать книгу On the Brink of a Chasm: A record of plot and passion онлайн

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Miss Clara Ives,

Trained Nurse, Medical, Surgical.

Tarbot waited for a moment. Would the nurse be in? or, if in, would she have retired to rest?

“Scarcely that,” he muttered to himself; “Clara does not sleep well. Clara has been subject to insomnia; she will scarcely retire before midnight on such a hot night as the present one.”

These thoughts had scarcely darted through his brain before the door was opened, and a woman, tall and slender, with reddish hair and a freckled face, stood before him. She was a painfully thin woman, her eyes light blue and her upper lip long.

When she saw Tarbot there came a gleam into her eyes—a peculiar look which for a moment transformed them. Then she stretched out her long right hand, took hold of the doctor’s, and led him into the room.

“Who would have thought of seeing you here, and now?” she said breathlessly. “What do you want with me? Another case, eh? or anything else?”

“I want a good deal with you, Clara, as it happens,” said Tarbot. He spoke in a familiar tone, without a trace of respect in it. “Shut the door, turn on the gas, and let us talk. As I said, I have much to say.”